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The Really New Europe: Brighton, 1990
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18357 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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9 / 1990 |
2,099 Words |
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Claudia Woolgar
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Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Curtain, has been “The Other Europe” for years - a region unknown, even to those Western European countries sharing its borders. A region of repressive regimes, appalling human rights records, with bands of secret police ferreting out any hint of anti-Party thinking. The culture of that “Other Europe” has been rarely glimpsed through the thick folds of the Iron Curtain. But the events of 1989 changed all that, and the 1990 Brighton Festival celebrated and explored the flowering of East/West European cultural exchange with the timely these and triumphant title “The New Europe.”
This year's May Brighton Festival was conceived more than two years ago, well before there were any signs that the Berlin Wall might topple. At that stage the idea was to bring “The Other Europe” to the Brighton Festival, but Gavin Henderson, artistic director of the festival, recalls being criticized for being too esoteric and a communist sympathizer to boot.
Nevertheless, the idea took root and, as it turned out, could not have been better timed. The 1990 Brighton Festival became the first major European arts festival to celebrate the cultural dawn of “The New Europe.”
Timely Gathering
The presence of Eastern European cultural events at the Brighton Festival is no new phenomenon, but this year was exceptional in offering such a timely gathering from most Eastern European countries. It also fit perfectly into Henderson's declaration that “the thrust of the festival should always maintain a position on human rights, and this will continue to be an underlying current.” It will be interesting to see how this promise manifests itself at next year's festival, which will focus on the United States as its theme.
Surprisingly, Henderson did not encounter difficulties as he “went shopping” for participants for the festival. “There were state views on certain cultural endeavors which we had to steer round, and there were certain countries which really come to life a little too late for us - Bulgaria for instance - but the great joy is that we are now part of a new Europe, and this is our culture which we are now part of a new Europe, and this is our culture which we are sharing.”
Things, however, were not quite as rosy as Henderson paints them. The Russian poet and director of Moscow Poetry Club, Dmitri Prigov, was listed in the festival's extensive literature program to present his work, and to discuss current trends in the USSR with the leading critic Mikhail Epstein. Neither event took place due to “visa problems.” It appears that Prigov had been refused a visa at the last minute because of fears that he might come over to England, speak too critically, and upset months of careful diplomatic work between Great Britain and the Soviet Union. We still have, it appears, a way to go before “The New Europe” is a completely free Europe.
Despite this politically and artistically disturbing hiccup, Henderson's 1990 program of events was impressive. What he had clearly tried to do was not just bring Eastern European artists to Brighton to perform as they perform back home. In addition to this aspect of the festival, the program showed a determined attempt to create and foster a cultural exchange across the fiscal borders of the new
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